From: com%"jeremy@apple.com" "Jeremy Bornstein" 15-DEC-1989 16:07:05.09 To: Joel M Snyder CC: Subj: On _A_Christmas_Carol_... Received: From ARIZVM1(MAILER) by MRVAX with Jnet id 2971 for JMS@ARIZMIS; Fri, 15 Dec 89 16:06 MST Received: by ARIZVM1 (Mailer R2.02A) id 2969; Fri, 15 Dec 89 16:09:10 MST Date: Fri, 15 Dec 89 14:09:13 PST Reply-To: Jeremy Bornstein Sender: Mmytacist Mmanufacture From: Jeremy Bornstein Subject: On _A_Christmas_Carol_... X-To: weird-l@brownvm.brown.edu To: Joel M Snyder From: On A Christmas Carol as a Parable for Civilization's Persecution Against Free Thought and Individual Expression by Grootnick P. Bargelights Charles Dickens wants you to be a propaganda-spouting Commie! The story of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, teaches us all the value of Christmas spirit through the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, an extremely money-driven businessman and skeptic of Christmas. In the story, he is portrayed as the annoying stalwart who spoils the spirit of Christmas for everyone; the miser with a heart of cold stone in a sea of warm, caring people. But is this the only way we can look at it? Let's look at it another way: Here we have a man going through life with a set of values that differs significantly from those around him. While most (in fact, all but him) are driven by their own happy family values, he is more concerned with money, and lives his life to fulfill his goals. His primary goal is financial success. Yet throughout the story, his personal goals are attacked and criticized by the general public, or for the purposes of the story's representation, the entire rest of the world. To look at it in this way, we find a new message -- Charles Dickens is telling us that persecution of those with different beliefs is just fine. In our modern society, this message is easily transferred to persecution of alternative ethnic groups, religious groups, and groups and individuals that live their lives in ways other than the accepted way of living. Note also that there are distinct similarities between Scrooge's plight and that of the capitalistic system versus the communist system. In A Christmas Carol, we find Scrooge, an ardent capitalist, persecuted for his capitalistic ways and persuaded relentlessly to join the masses who celebrate Santa Claus (who symbolizes the communist government) providing the following masses with free goods. Note also that "Christmas" and "Communism" both begin with the letter C. The ghosts of past, present, and future attempt to indicate the futility of the capitalistic mode of thought. By showing Scrooge's grave in the end, we see the grave of capitalism and all that it stands for. Since Scrooge is the lone surviving capitalist in a world of communism, his death represents the success of communism in total global domination. While we are told that we have the freedom of speech and expression, we see daily that exercise of this "freedom" will get us fired, harassed, beaten, and sometimes killed. A Christmas Carol, with startling parallels to the movie Brazil, shows us that those who choose individual thoughts and freedom of expression can expect continuous, violent, and unrelenting oppression from those who dominate our society -- the vast bulk of the people that you see, talk, and deal with every single day.